Jose Manuel Broto
Jose Manuel Broto
Zaragoza,Spain, 1949
Biography:
Established Spanish painter Jose Manuel Broto is renowned for his association with the neoabstraction movement of the 1970s.
Broto studied at the School of Arts in his native city, Zaragoza. In 1972 he settled in Barcelona. In 1976, as a member of the group Trama, created by Javier Rubio, Xavier Grau and Gonzalo Tena, and supported by Antoni Tapies, he participated in the group's first exhibition at the Barcelonese gallery Maeght. This group also created an homonym magazine of which only the first two issues were ever printed.
Broto's neoabstract style is influenced by the aesthetic principles of the French group Support(s)-Surface(s). His Before 1970 he produced informalist works with minimal reminiscences, based on elemental geometric structures with flat fields of monochromatic colour. It is during the 1970's when his work evolves to a gestural or lyrical abstraction that combines abstract forms with formal references to geometric objects, or signs taken from other symbolic languages, like mathematics, music or writing, especially from 1985. His informalism is connected to the revaluation of colour when used to reach expressive and emotive results, and the redefinition gesture, the fruit of poetic and metaphysical reflection. Contrasts and tensions between different chromatic fields and forms are frequent in his work. He is influenced by abstract expressionism, by Cezanne and also by cubism. From a technical point of view, it can be highlighted the use of acrylic paint and tar in his last artworks, the creation of glaze superimposing thin layers of liquid paint, and the occasional use of dripping technique which are very prevalent in his last artwork.
His most notable pieces of artwork are his series, such us Los Prodigios (1989), Vestigia Vitae (1990), Triptico Mozart (1993) and Las Islas (60 paintings, 1994)
Exhibitions:
* 1969 Galeria Galdeano, Zaragoza
* 1976 Galeria Buades, Madrid
* 1980 Galeria Central, Madrid
* 1981 Galeria Maeght, Barcelona
* 1984 Galerie Adrien Maeght, Paris
* 1985 ARCO 85, Galeria Miguel Marcos, Madrid
* 1986 Laurens A. Daane Gallery, Amsterdam
Germans Van Eck Gallery, New York - 1987 Galerie Moderne, Silkeborg
Museo Espaņol de Arte Contemporaneo, Madrid
FIAC 87, Galerie Maeght, Paris
Germans Van Eck Gallery, New York - 1988 Galeria Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid
Galerie Aeblegaarden, Holt - 1989 Bruno Fachetti Gallery, New York
Galeria Juana de Aizpuru, Sevilla, Spain - 1991 Galeria Carles Tache, Barcelona - 1992 Galeria Claudia Gian Ferrari, Milan
Museo de Artes Visuales Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela - 1993 Barbara Farber Gallery, Amsterdam
Galeria Ruth Benzacar, Buenos Aires - 1996 Palacio de Velazquez, MNCARS, Madrid
Galerie Renos Xippas, Paris - 1997 Adriana Schmidt Gallery, Cologne, Germany - 1999 Galeria Altxerri, San Sebastian, Spain - 2000 Palais des Congres, Paris - 2001 Broto en Silos, Abadia de Santo Domingo de Silos - 2002 Galerie Xippas, Paris - 2003 Broto. Obras 1997-2002, Casa del Cordon. Caja de Burgos, Spain
Broto, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de Santiago de Chile - 2004 Broto. Museo Jose Luis Cuevas, Mexico D. F.
Broto Rever. Centro Municipal de Exposiciones, Montevideo, Uruguay - 2005 Principio. Galeria Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid
